According to Ehri's phases of word reading development, which characteristic is most closely associated with the full alphabetic phase?

• A. Readers use complete sound-letter correspondences to decode unfamiliar words
• B. Readers rely only on memorized whole words
• C. Readers cannot yet connect letters to sounds
• D. Readers depend exclusively on picture cues to guess words

Answer: (A)

In this phase, readers have moved beyond guessing from pictures or simply relying on memorized words. They know that letters map to sounds and can apply those mappings to new, unfamiliar words. The key skill is decoding by sounding out and blending the letter-sound information they’ve learned, so they can pronounce and recognize words they've not seen before. That ability—using complete sound-letter correspondences to decode unfamiliar words—precisely captures what the full alphabetic phase is about: transitioning from memorized word recognition to phonics-based decoding. The other ideas describe earlier stages or strategies (relying on visual cues, memorized words, or guessing from pictures), which don’t reflect this decoding-focused growth.